Voting in the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU
The referendum to
determine whether the UK remains part of the EU is due to take place before the
end of 2017. There are as many as 5.5m UK citizens living overseas who may have views on the
matter but may not know if they are eligible to take part, and if so how to do
this.
Who can vote?
To be able to vote you
need to have been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years, know your
National Insurance number, and have your passport to hand (if you don’t have a
National Insurance number you can still register, but you may have to supply
more information to show who you are).
If you were too young
when you left the UK to have been registered, then you can register as an
overseas voter if your parents (or guardians) were registered in the UK in the
last 15 years.
How can I register?
You can now register online. It takes five minutes and you can choose to vote via post; proxy (you
designate someone you trust to vote on your behalf in the UK); or in person at
a polling station in your constituency (but of course if you live overseas you’re
unlikely to be able to do this).
With
the date of the referendum as yet unknown, it’s best to register sooner rather
than later so you can be sure you’re registered in time. If you are not
registered you can’t vote.
You
can still download and post back
paper forms. But remember to return your completed form
as far in advance of the deadline as possible. The actual deadlines for
registering to vote and applying for an absent vote will be set once the date
of the referendum is known.
How easy is it to register?
Work was carried out ahead of
the 2015 UK Parliamentary General Election to reach British citizens abroad. This work increased the number of overseas
electors by 300% and also taught us a lot.
One thing we learnt was that the sooner overseas voters get registered
to vote, the more time they have to arrange for a method of absent voting. It
should be easier to vote by post for this referendum as the timetable for
postal votes has been extended to allow theses to be sent out even earlier than
usual, giving you a bit more time to receive, complete, and return your ballot.
Ric Todd
British High Commissioner
